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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25926259">Self-isolating together</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Teaismycoffee/pseuds/Teaismycoffee'>Teaismycoffee</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Captain America (Movies)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>COVID-19, Coronavirus, Friendship, Hugs, M/M, Quarantine, Sad Sam Wilson, Self Isolation, bucky is a good friend, mentions of other Avengers, mild flirting, quaranteaming</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 04:27:43</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,450</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25926259</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Teaismycoffee/pseuds/Teaismycoffee</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam Wilson left the Avengers compound to self-isolate at home in his apartment. He is lonely.  Bucky calls and tries to talk him into quaren-teaming together. Bucky has been reading articles.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>James "Bucky" Barnes/Sam Wilson</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>77</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Self-isolating together</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was April, 2020. </p><p>For the first couple of weeks of self-isolating Sam was very happy with his decision to leave the Avenger’s compound and return to his apartment for the Covid-19 lockdown. He relished the privacy and the alone time. </p><p>Four weeks in, it was not nearly as much fun. </p><p>Sam’s cellphone rang. He knew he should pull himself up from the couch enough to at least check to see who was calling. He was in the middle of a Fortnight battle, teamed up with two kids who lived down the hall, and unmotivated to set his iPad down to look at his cellphone. It was probably his sister again. He knew it was his turn to try to talk their mom out of leaving the house to run errands, from two state away. He quit the game, paused the show playing on the TV and sat up enough to reach the phone. </p><p>It was Bucky. </p><p>“Hey. What’s up?”, Sam asked, an edge to his voice.</p><p>“Everything is fine,” Bucky said, “this isn’t one of those kinds of calls.”</p><p>Sam flopped back onto the couch, “How is the compound?”</p><p>“Steve’s on a mission. He probably can’t get coronavirus. I’m not. I probably can.” Bucky said.</p><p>“Wait… how come…I thought” Sam started.</p><p>“Apparently, it is the same type of virus as a cold. You remember how I can catch colds but Steve can’t?” Bucky answered.</p><p>Sam did. Bucky was a terrible patient. Once, Bucky threw a bowl of soup at Steve, an actual bowl of soup with a spoon in it. Sam was standing close enough he got soup in his hair.</p><p>“So you’ve been quarantining? Like a regular, normal, non-super-solider?” Sam asked.</p><p>“Yeah,” Bucky answered dully, “a month.”</p><p>It had been a month. </p><p>They both sat in silence for a moment.</p><p>“So, I’ve been reading articles…” Bucky said.</p><p>“Uh-huh,” Sam said and waited for whatever was going to come next.</p><p>“There is thing called ‘quaran-teaming’ where people quarantine together…” Bucky said and paused.</p><p>Sam waited.</p><p>“I think we should quaranteam,” Bucky said. </p><p>Sam said nothing.</p><p>Bucky said nothing.</p><p>“What about Nat?” Sam asked.</p><p>“She left.” Bucky answered. </p><p>“Left?” Sam asked.</p><p>“Uh… she went to New Zealand,” Bucky said.</p><p>“Why New Zealand?” Sam asked.</p><p>“Not really sure,” Bucky said, “but she said that was going to be the best choice for riding out the pandemic.” He added vaguely, “Nat knows things.”</p><p>“Huh,” Sam said again, then added “what about Banner. He’s still there, right?”</p><p>“Banner was pretty sure he couldn’t get it… so he locked himself in one of the labs and exposed himself to a sample…he was right, but-” Bucky started.</p><p>“He…he…seriously? Bet that didn’t go over well with Stark” Sam interrupted</p><p>“Yeah. Stark locked Banner up in… Stark says he is having a time out… and he…” Bucky said.</p><p>“Stark was already a germaphobe” Sam added.</p><p>“Yeah. He will only leave his apartment in one of his suits… I’ve only seen him twice…actually, I’m not sure he was inside the suit…the suit was talking, but…” Bucky said. </p><p>“Wanda?” Sam asked.</p><p>“Went to the farm with Clint,” Buck said.</p><p>“You could have gone with them?” Sam asked.</p><p>“Nah. Laura is still mad about-” Bucky started.</p><p>“That time you taught the kids ‘assassin skills’” Sam finished for him.</p><p>Bucky made a choked noise, “I would not… those were… that was for self defense…”</p><p>Sam was quiet.</p><p>Bucky was quiet.</p><p>“I could help you clean your apartment,” Bucky said.</p><p>Sam glanced around his apartment. His apartment was a mess. He pictured Bucky with his hair pulled back in a bandana and wearing yellow rubber gloves. He said nothing.</p><p>“I’ve got toilet paper,” Bucky said.</p><p>“That one-ply stuff Steve insists on to be …’thrifty’?” Sam asked knowing that Bucky would hear the air quotes.</p><p>“No. The good stuff Stark has for personal use,” Bucky answered.</p><p>“You got past all of Stark’s security and into his apartment?” Sam asked incredulously.</p><p>“Well, yeah…” Bucky said, “ but no, this I just got out of the supply closet.” Bucky said.</p><p>Sam knew that the supply closet still had at least half the amount of security as Stark’s apartment. </p><p>Sam looked down at his dirty sweatshirt and sweatpants. Some part of him must have been thinking about saying yes, because he was thinking that if Bucky was coming over, he should probably change… and shower. </p><p>“And wine. I’ve got a bottle of wine,” Bucky added, “Oh. And I’ve been watching a lot of cooking shows. I can cook dinner. You have to be sick of take-out…anything you want to put in your mouth… that is not a euphemism…oh, I can make English muffins now… and I made pasta from scratch…eggs, flour, water-“</p><p>“I can cook,” Sam said grumpily, he looked over his shoulder at his kitchen counter which at the moment was overflowing with empty takeout containers. </p><p>“One article I read…” Bucky started and then stopped and then started again, “single people…people who live alone… it’s bad for their mental health, not enough physical contact, they don’t get enough-”</p><p>“Sex?” Sam asked.</p><p>“Well,” Bucky said deadpan, “I’m a little out of practice but I remember the basics.”</p><p>Sam laughed in spite of himself. </p><p>“Hugs,” Bucky said, “not enough hugs… and people are drinking too much.”</p><p>“You are the one who offered to bring wine,” Sam pointed out. He looked at the bin full of empty beer bottles on the floor by the door. </p><p>Bucky sighed, “If we are sharing the wine we’ll only drink half as much.”</p><p>Sam heard a siren go by outside. A second later he heard the siren through the phone. He sat up fully and flipped open his laptop to check the security system cameras pointed around the outside of his apartment building. Nothing.</p><p>“I have all of Stark’s video streaming platform passwords,” Bucky offered.</p><p>Sam was up, checking his kitchen window. Then he moved back to the living room.</p><p>“HBOMax?” Sam asked.</p><p>“Uh-huh,” Bucky confirmed.</p><p>Sam opened one of the living room windows and stuck his head out. There was Bucky, perched on the tiniest of ledges outside of Sam’s fourth floor apartment, phone up to his ear. He grinned at Sam.</p><p>“Get in here,” Sam said, opening the window and stepping back. He knew that Bucky was very good at scaling buildings but didn’t want to risk grabbing him or even offering a hand for fear he’d knock Bucky off balance. He hung up and set the phone down. </p><p>Bucky swung in, legs first, pulling a black backpack presumably full of extra-soft two-ply toilet paper, a bottle of wine, and probably some clothes, after him. And then shut the window after himself.</p><p>Bucky’s smile faded a little, “We need to work on security. Your apartment is way too accessible from the outside.”</p><p>Sam looked at him sternly, “Well?”</p><p>Bucky looked less sure of himself than before. His eyes narrowed slightly in confusion until he saw the slightest twitch of Sam’s arms then he understood. With ex-assassin precision he wrapped Sam in a soft hug.</p><p>Sam let Bucky hug him for half a minute or so, and then wrapped his arms around Bucky and squeezed back. He felt Bucky exhale and then he felt the tension slipping out of his own body. </p><p>He pulled out of the hug and laughed. “Okay. You win. I think I missed physical contact.”</p><p>Bucky beamed at him and collapsed down onto the couch. He picked up the remote. “Can we keep watching this? I want to see how it ends.”</p><p>Sam suddenly had a mental image of Bucky out on the ledge, lip-reading the show through the window before calling Sam. And then something else occurred to him.</p><p>“Bucky,” he said quietly, “There are N-95 masks at the compound. Shit, I mean, Stark could make you something better. Why aren’t you with Steve?”</p><p>Bucky looked up a little sheepishly, “Stark did… Steve and I were worried about you.”</p><p>“Uh-huh,” Sam answered dropping on the couch next to Bucky. Sam knew for a fact that while Steve was a good friend, whatever Steve was thinking about, it was not Sam’s mental health. That was all Bucky. “So, we’re doing this, huh? Quaranteaming?”</p><p>Bucky nodded solemnly. </p><p>“And you can make English muffins now,” Sam asked.</p><p>Bucky nodded again.</p><p>“And we’re going to hug… how often?” Sam asked.</p><p>Bucky looked up as if he was doing calculations, then with eyes dancing with mischief, met Sam’s eyes, “I think probably pretty often,” then he shrugged, “unless you don’t want to.”</p><p>Sam nodded and smiled at Bucky, “Okay.”</p><p>Bucky smiled back.</p><p>Sam decided that quaranteaming didn’t sound like a terrible idea,</p>
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